Drake's Challenge:
Identify the quotes at the end of the story! Who said each of them???

It's a Wonderful
Duel

Yugi lay awake in bed,
looking up at the ceiling. Kaiba Craft III continued to Kaiba Corp
Isle, and for all Yugi knew Yami Marik could burst into his room at
any moment.

"This is so stupid."
Yugi groaned. He sat up and glared at the Millennium Puzzle. "Ever
since I solved you you've caused nothing but trouble!" He threw
the Item across the room angrily and lay back in bed. "I wish I had
never solved that stupid Puzzle." He grumbled.

"Oh what a drama
queen." Yugi sat up in bed and stared at the boy in his doorway.
The boy had spiked black hair and a black trenchcoat over black jeans
and a shirt.

"Who are you?"
Yugi asked. The boy shrugged.

"I'm Drake. In
this reality you have no clue who I am, but in another time and
place, it's a different story. I was sent here to show you what
would have happened if you had never completed the Millennium
Puzzle."

"Thanks…Drake, but
I think Yami Bakura is due to show up in a few days, so I'm too
busy." Yugi replied.

"Actually he won't
be around for another couple seasons, but I've frozen time, so
don't worry." Drake assured him. "Let's go." Yugi got out
of bed and sighed.

"I guess I have no
choice." He said, opening the bedroom door. "After you." Drake
walked through, and Yugi slammed the door shut, spinning around to
scream at the sight of Drake reclining on his bed.

"If I had a nickel
for every time someone tried that." Drake mused. He stood up and
lifted a hand, the bedroom door opening to a bright light. "Your
time is frozen but mine still ticks, so let's haul ass Muto."
Drake grabbed Yugi's hand and pulled him through the door.

- - - - - - - - - -

"Our first stop."
Drake said, walking out of the door to the high school and bringing
Yugi with him. "Look familiar?" Yugi looked on at the bully
beating up Joey and Tristan.

"Yeah, Joey and
Tristan got hassled by this guy for beating me up." Yugi said. "And
then I came by and…" He trailed off as a slightly younger Yugi
walked around the corner and stopped at the sight. "Yeah, I come to
their defense." Yugi said. The younger Yugi gulped and ran away.
"Hey…"

"Someone is
amnesiac." Drake sighed. "Joey tossed the Puzzle piece in the
river, and he only got it back for you when you came to his defense.
Ergo, you don't come to his defense, and he doesn't get you the
piece, the Puzzle is never solved."

"It's not that
easy Yugi. I've got all kinds of neat things to show you. C'mon."
Drake pulled open the school door. "Shall we?"

"You're enjoying
this, aren't you?" Yugi grumbled.

"Oh yeah." Drake
grinned, pushing him inside.

- - - - - - - - - -

"Welcome to Domino
High Cafeteria." Drake said, spreading his arms. Yugi looked around
the room, before settling his gaze on the Alternate Yugi eating a
sandwich at a table. "It's been about a week since you
solved…excuse me, didn't solve the Puzzle. Let's watch."
Yugi gave Drake an odd look and turned back as Téa sat down
opposite Yugi.

"Yugi, heads up,
Joey's looking for you." She hissed. Yugi gulped.

"Ah no, not again."
He groaned, ducking under the table. "Hide me." Téa
reached over and grabbed the back of his collar, pulling him back up.

"Yugi, sheesh, grow
a back bone. You have to stand up for yourself more." Téa
scolded.

"You don't get it
Téa, I told the principal Joey and Martin got in a fight last
week. Joey's gonna kill me."

"You'll be fine."
Téa rolled her eyes. "Just don't back down and…" Téa
trailed off as a brunette teen walked across the cafeteria. "Hello
tall, dark and delicious…" Téa whispered. "Be right
back." Téa got up and followed the boy down the hall.

"This is stupid."
Yugi scoffed. "The Téa I know hates Kaiba."

"But the Téa
he knows doesn't." Drake said. "Téa only hated Kaiba
because she never took the opportunity to like him. See when you
solved the Puzzle, Téa got a crush on Yami, and as you became
independent, on you too. But, no Puzzle, no spirit, you're still a
wuss, and Téa, well…with no one else around, she went for
Kaiba." Drake shrugged innocently. The cafeteria doors banged open,
and Joey marched up to Yugi's table angrily.

"Tanks a lot ya
little runt!" He snapped. "Tanks to you I got expelled for
fighting!"

"I didn't mean to
Joey, really! He just asked if I saw the fight and I said yes! Yugi
whimpered.

"Okay, we're here
at the Game Shop." Drake said, waving his hand at Alternate Yugi,
who was manning the cash register. "It's been a month now, and
your Grandpa is at Duelist Kingdom, leaving you to man the store."

"Duelist Kingdom?"
Yugi asked.

"Yeah, since you
never made friends with Joey and Tristan, Kaiba never found out about
Grandpa's Blue-Eyes until after Grandpa had become skilled enough
that Kaiba couldn't beat him and take it. He's a top duelist now,
what with Exodia and a Blue-Eyes in his deck. As for the
tournament, it seems Pegasus is content with the partial Puzzle.
Wanna know what happened to the missing piece?" Drake asked with a
grin. The door of the shop opened, and the Kaiba Brothers walked in.

"I'm telling you
Seto, the guy at the antique store offered me 20 bucks for this!"
Mokuba said, holding up a familiar piece of gold.

"Mokuba, I'll
offer you 20 bucks to stop talking." Kaiba groaned. "Two packs of
all your boosters." Yugi got the cards from under the counter and
tossed them up. Kaiba swiped his credit card and paid.

"A lot of people
don't." Yugi muttered. "See ya around Kaiba." Kaiba didn't
return the gesture, walking out of the store with Téa and
Mokuba in tow.

"That is the one
good thing about this. You never dueled Kaiba, so he doesn't hate
you. He gives you the same indifference he does most people." Drake
said. Alternate Yugi whistled as he leafed through a magazine,
looking up as a man brought a brown box inside.

"New shipment of the
next boosters." Joey grunted, setting the box down. "Sign here."
He tossed the clipboard to Alternate Yugi.

"Wait, what's Joey
doing?" Yugi asked.

"He's a delivery
man for Industrial Illusions now." Drake explained. "He does this
in the day and works at the McDonalds down the street at night. In
case you forgot, Serenity still needs that surgery, and without you
to take him to Duelist Kingdom, he has to get it the hard way."
Yugi watched as Alternate Yugi handed the clipboard back to Joey, who
left.

"Wow…it's like I
impacted everyone else's life." Yugi whispered. "And to think I
was gonna throw all that a-." Yugi stopped and made a raspberry at
Drake. Drake rolled his eyes.

"Very pleasant. And
Téa left a great catch like you." He growled. "Fine, let's
go ahead, say…two months." Drake led Yugi out the store door into
the school cafeteria again.

"Okay, here we see
you…as a member of the chess club." Drake and Yugi watched
Alternate Yugi, wearing a brown vest and a blue dress shirt,
checkmate the senior student he was playing. "Wimp. At least you're
well dressed." He said. A teacher stomped past the table Alternate
Yugi was at and shook the shoulder of a girl straddling a boy at the
next table, making out with him. Yugi shook his head at the girl's
near-Goth clothing. There was no way…

"Ms. Gardner, you're
late for class again." The teacher snapped. Téa broke her
kiss with Kaiba and sighed.

"Gotta go baby,
teacher's squakin'." She said, grabbing her book bag.

"It's okay. Your
place?" Kaiba replied.

"Yours, my mom is
home tonight." Téa shook her head and gave him one more
kiss. "See ya."

"Later Hot Legs."
Kaiba waved, winking. Téa waved back as she followed the
teacher to class. The near-by janitor tapped Kaiba on the shoulder.

"Speakin' o'
legs, ya mind?" The janitor muttered. Kaiba lifted his feet as the
janitor washed under his chair. Yugi's jaw dropped at the janitor's
blonde hair and brown eyes.

"Joey's the
janitor?" Yugi asked. "What about McDonalds and the Delivery
guy?"

"Lost the first job
when he fell asleep using the deep fryer." Drake said. "Turns out
3 days without sleep makes you a little slow. On the up-side, he's
now the head of creative design for cards at I-squared. Pegasus liked
the idea of burger-themed Duel Monster cards." Joey went on to wash
the rest of the cafeteria as Mokuba walked in and sat opposite Kaiba.

"I just got off the
phone with Pegasus." Mokuba said. "It's a go."

"Then he's
selling?" Kaiba asked eagerly. Mokuba nodded.

"Industrial
Illusions is now a division of KaibaCorp!" He confirmed, slapping
Kaiba a high-five. "I just had to agree to sell him my gold-eye
thingy, and he caved." Mokuba passed the Millennium Puzzle piece to
Kaiba.

"Mokuba sold it to
Pegasus?" Yugi muttered in disbelief.

"Yup, the poor guy
only ever wanted his wife back. After Duelist Kingdom, he had two
Items, and thus with the Puzzle now he has three, enough to bring
back his wife with access to the KaibaCorp virtual software." Drake
nodded. "So, ya ready to head back to reality yet?" Yugi
shrugged.

"I dunno, this place
isn't so bad." He replied. "Téa seems happy, Kaiba too
for once, Mokuba's in business, and Pegasus gets his wife back.
This is actually pretty good." Drake shook his head.

"It gets worse."
He said. "It's time to head for the future." Drake pushed open
the cafeteria doors. "Shall we?" He asked with a grin. Yugi
nodded and walked through, Drake following him.

- - - - - - - - - -

"It's now two
months after high school graduation." Drake said, leading Yugi
through the room. It was crowded with all sorts of people in suits,
and Yugi saw himself on the dance floor, looking around.

"Actually, it's a
chair." He said. Yugi's shoulders slumped as the other Yugi
climbed down and reverted to normal height.

"Where are we?" He
asked.

"Your Grandpa's
wedding." Drake said simply. Yugi smiled.

"He got remarried,
alright." He said. "To who?"

"See for yourself."
Drake replied, pointing through the crowd. The people parted as
Solomon Muto walked into the room with the bride on his arm. Yugi
made a face.

"Mai?" He gagged,
staring at the blonde kissing his grandfather.

"Yeah, they met at
Duelist Kingdom, married out of mutual interests. Mai likes money, he
has it, he likes sex, she…well, she's good at it apparently."
Drake explained. Solomon walked down the room and threw his arm
around Alternate Yugi's shoulders.

"But I made it!"
Joey laughed, shaking Solomon's hand. He wore a spotless business
suit of blue polyester. "Congrats Mr. Muto on da wedding. Can I
kiss the bride?" He asked with a grin.

"No tongue." Mai
warned. Joey shrugged and tipped her back to kiss her. Solomon
shrugged and turned back to Kaiba.

"So how your little
lady?" He asked. Kaiba sighed.

"Well between the
wedding to plan and the hormones, she's not exactly the most
pleasant flower in the garden." He replied. "She's really
pissed at me, she thinks its my fault she had to drop out of high
school."

"Téa dropped
out of high school?" Yugi gasped.

"Yeah, once Kaiba
got her pregnant she was kicked out." Drake said.

"Hey, Hot Legs, come
over here!" Kaiba called. Téa, only having the slightest bit
of a paunch this early, walked over and greeted everyone.

"Listen, I wanna
talk business with da champ and Kaiba." Joey said. "Girls, we
gotta amscray." The three men walked away, leaving Mai, Téa
and Alternate Yugi alone.

"You two enjoy the
party, I'm hitting the snackbar." Mai said, leaving. Téa
shrugged and looked down at Alternate Yugi.

"Wanna dance?" She
asked.

"With me?"
Alternate Yugi asked, shocked. Téa nodded, and Yugi held out
his hand. The band played a slow song as the two eased into the
music.

"Not really. It's
hard to pirouette with a kid growing in your belly." Téa
chuckled. "But I'm not worried, Kaiba said he can support me and
maybe even teach me the business so I can join in KaibaCorp someday."

"That's great."
Yugi said. The two were silent for a moment. "Its nice being able
to talk to you Téa, I haven't seen you in years."

"I know, you're a
good friend now Yugi, and always were. I just moved on, and so did
you. We moved on to other people." Téa explained. The song
ended, and the two slowly parted. "See ya around Yugi." Téa
whispered, vanishing into the crowd. Yugi nodded sadly and walked to
the buffet, grabbing a paper cup of coffee. Drake gave Yugi a look.

"Huh, huh?" He
prodded. "C'mon, start the tears man."

"It's not that
bad, really." Yugi sighed. "I'm friends with Kaiba…sort of.
Joey's a businessman, Téa's well taken care of, Grandpa…I
don't want to discuss it. This is a nice place, even without my
friends." Alternate Yugi spun around.

"Like hell!"
Alternate Yugi laughed. "I'm 18 years old and I live in my
grandfather's card shop! My grandpa married someone young enough to
be my sister. The closest thing I've ever had to a kiss was Téa
frenching Kaiba and me bumping into them!"

"Boo hoo for you!"
Yugi snapped. "You don't have to risk your life and fight evil
all the time. Trust me, I've gone through a lot worse things than
you!" He marched away, leaving Drake with Alternate Yugi.

"So you can…change
the past?" Alternate Yugi asked. Drake nodded. "Is there any
other world besides his?"

"Only one, but trust
me, it's not much better than what he got." Drake sighed,
following Yugi through the crowd.

- - - - - - - - - -

"Thanks,
Mr….whatever." Yugi said, sitting back on his bed in the Kaiba
Craft. "But I have to get up tomorrow and stop the psycho again, so
can I go back to sleep now?" Drake shrugged.

"Okay, you win.
Things were better the other way." He admitted. "I'll make you
a deal. I'll reverse it all, undo everything, take way all the bad
and the good."